Monday, February 23, 2009

This American Crow originally presented with a fractured left metacarpal. The fracture had unfortunately broken through his skin, resulting in what we call an open fracture. His wing was wrapped and he was started on pain medication and antibiotics. He progressed well for a few weeks, but then injured his wing while he was trying to pick through his bandage. Self-injury is a common complication in the WMC, since the stay in the ward can be stressful for wild animals. Some animals cannot survive the stress of being indoors and handled by human beings, while others continually try to pick at themselves or their wounds. This Crow is still improving, with the team now incorporating some physical therapy into his treatments to try to ensure he retains movement in his wing. In these photos, members of Team 10 are changing the bandage that covers the Crow's wound and re-wrapping his wing to continue to stabilize his fracture.

2 comments:

Too bad the crow has been a little stressed. We try our hardest at the WMC to make sure that the animals are not exposed to undue stressors. Some of the ways we do this are to reduce noise levels in the clinic and to only handle cases when necessary.

Yeah, he has a lot of toys in his cage and we put him in the back of the room to try to keep him away from the noise. He's actually pretty calm while being handled and an easy patient to work with. I'm fairly sure that he hurt himself trying to get his wing wrap off... Crows are just too smart for their own good.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Wildlife Medical Clinic blog!

WMC's mission is threefold: to provide care and treatment to sick, injured, or orphaned wild animals to the point where they can be returned to the wild; to provide hands-on training to veterinary students; and through our public education program, to teach the members of our community about the environment in which they live and the wildlife they share it with

The Wildlife Medical Clinic accepts ill, injured, or orphaned wildlife (except for skunks and bats) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Upon presentation, the animals are triaged and then assigned to a team of 8-10 volunteers (generally veterinary students) who are responsible for treating the patient.

The primary goal in treating wild animals is to help animals recover to a state in which they can be released into the wild. Wild animals must be completely healthy before being released into the wild in order for them to hunt or forage for food, as well as stay out of danger.

The WMC is housed in the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. The College donates clinic space and utilities, but all testing, feed, treatment and surgery costs are covered by the WMC budget. The WMC is a non-profit organization that depends solely on fund-raising, donations, and grants for this operating budget.